1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to extracts used for medical purposes and more specifically to cannabis-related products and extracts that provide various benefits and advantages to a mammal.
2. General Background
Cannabis products have been consumed in various forms for thousands of years. The first descriptions of the medical uses date from Chinese herbal texts in the first century A.D. Cannabis products were taken orally in an herbal tea concoction and were used for their pain-relieving and sleep-inducing properties.
In contrast, the use of cannabis in India was largely restricted to smoking the leaf or the resin extract (hashish) for its psychoactive properties. In fact, cannabis was also used in Ayurvedic medicine in India. This practice became incorporated into the Indian life and culture.
The use was spread through Arab lands in the Middle Ages before coming into Europe and the Americas. It was either eaten, usually in the hashish form, or the leaves were smoked. The medical benefits were not utilized by the medical practitioners of the time and the major usage was for its psychoactive properties as a recreational drug.
It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that cannabis-based medicines were introduced into the West. The tinctures were used orally for the treatment of seizures, neuralgia, insomnia, and dysmenorrhea, among other illnesses. The cannabis-based medications were administered through an alcohol-based extract of hemp plants that were lacking in the most pharmacologically active ingredients, especially tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
During most of the twentieth century there has been little interest in or advance of the medical use of cannabis. It has been legally prohibited in the United States since 1937. Occasionally small amounts of oil extract have been made available to some licensed university researchers for animal studies. One of the current authors (Stephen Rosenblatt, M.D., Ph.D.) did animal research from 1969 through 1971 on learning and memory in rats, using injectable THC oil. Little to no human research on the medical uses of cannabis has been done in recent years. It is believed that, to the extent not already legalized, full state and federal legalization of cannabis related products is imminent.
There presently exists the need to provide more effective and safer cannabis extracts for various medical uses, extraction methods that provide unique active compounds that are useful to treat pain and various medical conditions. Additionally, presently known extraction procedures add unwanted toxins and solvents, provide relatively low yields of the active compound, and/or do not provide the desired active ingredient(s) for the particular pain related to medical purpose. The present invention overcomes these limitations and provides other related advantages.